Nebraska State Chess Association 2018 The Year In Review

The GambitNebraska State Chess ArchivesNebraska State Chess Association2018The Year in ReviewXABCDEFGHY8-wQ- -mK-mk(7 - - - -'6- -snL P &5 - - -zp-%4- - - - 3 - - - -#2- - - - "1 -vl- - -!xabcdefghyWhite to play & mate in 2 moves.Composed by Bob Woodworth (April, 2019)Note: Solution/Keymove can be found on page 1

From Kent’s CornerMy friends, here is another issue of the Gambit for yourenjoyment. Please know we have a select few contributors tothank for making this issue possible.My heartfelt thanks to Alexander Golubow for his article. It iscomforting knowing I have one friend in Wyoming who reallycares about making the Gambit a special chess newsletter. Thatfriend is Alex. Thank you Alex!Robert Woodworth really stepped up by providing me greatarticles during a stretch of time when your editor had nothing toedit! Thank you Bob for giving me enough material to createthis issue!Ying Tan, the 3 time consecutive Nebraska State Closed ChessChampion, kindly agreed to do an interview which is in thisissue. Thank you Ying! Great stuff!Special thanks to the man of all chess seasons, JohnHartmann, for providing me games from 2018 tournamentsand for providing a letter from the NSCA president.My thanks to Jeff Solheim for letting know about the tragicnews about Jamie Leavitt. Without Jeff’s report, I would had noidea what happened.After many years, I recently heard from Rauf Aliovsadzade.Rauf provided me several chess compositions some years agoand he is a sub-editor of a chess publication. There will be alink to this publication, as well has a composed chess puzzle,.elsewhere in the issue. Be sure to check it out.Please understand, I will strongly consider publishing anymaterial you wish to submit. I told the NSCA board I’m willingto produce 2 issues per year. It’s up to you to make sure I haveenough material to work on.Thank you!Yours in chess.Kent Nelson Gambit Editor.

Table of ContentsNews and Notes . .1Universal Opening by Alex Golubow . .2The Attacking King!! by Robert Woodworth . .10Games Galore!.13A Fantastic Chess Problem Given to GM Anand by GMKramnik by Robert Woodworth . .26Letter from Rauf Aliovsadzade . .28Steve Cusumano: 2018 Nebraska Player of theYear .292018 Nebraska Player of the Year: Final Standings .30Interview with Ying Tan . . 31You Never, Ever Stop Learning in this Amazing Game!by Robert Woodworth . .342018 Tournament Summaries and Results 37The Lowly Pawn by Robert Woodworth .42Trifecta! Ying Tan powers his way to his 3rd consecutiveState Closed Championship by Kent Nelson . .53Historical Article-What a difference a hundred yearsmakes!.67Tournament Announcements . . .69Solution to puzzle from page 28 .70Notes .71

Gambit Editor- Kent NelsonThe Gambit serves as the official publication of the Nebraska State ChessAssociation and is published by the Lincoln Chess Foundation.Send all games, articles, and editorial materials to:Kent Nelson4014 “N” StLincoln, NE 68510KentNelson@prodigy.netNSCA OfficersPresident John HartmannTreasurer Lucy RufHistorical Archivist Bob WoodworthSecretary Gnanasekar ArputhaswamyWebmaster John HartmannRegional VPsNSCA Committee MembersVice President-Lincoln- John LinscottVice President-Omaha- Michael GoochVice President (Western)

Letter from NSCA President John HartmannDear Friends:Once again Kent Nelson has used his time and skill to provide all fansof Nebraska chess with a new issue of The Gambit. It is with greatgratitude for all of his hard work that I thank him.Nebraska Chess is at a bit of a crossroads. Michael Gooch has steppeddown from his position as Omaha Vice President, and Michael Millswill now man his post.Note that I did not say that he will replace him, for no one could replace Michael Gooch in the annals in Nebraska chess. A former NSCAPresident and Vice President, Mike has been one of a very feworganizers and directors in the state, running important tournamentswhen no one else could or would. His leadership helped build theNSCA reserves, allowing us to support our players at national events.He steered the ship in tough times, and our organization is in solidshape largely because of his long-term efforts.Thank you, Mike Gooch, for all you’ve done and all you will continueto do.Board changes are uncommon in Nebraska chess, so any arrival anddeparture serves as a reminder that volunteerism is the lifeblood of ourwork. There is little money or glory in chess organization and boosterism. What reward there is comes from the faces of the kids who wintrophies, the parents who see their daughters take their firstcompetitive steps, the friends we make as we play our beloved game.To put it bluntly: we need YOU to step up now and help us decidewhat the future of Nebraska chess looks like. The board will bereviewing everything we have done in the past – our bylaws, ourChampionship, our tournaments and our long-term goals – to try andgrow chess in Nebraska. But we are only a handful of people. We needYOU to do your part.Do you want tournaments to play in, for you or your kids? Become aTD and run a quad. Find space for a tournament, and get a current TDto come and direct. Do you want to see scholastic chess grow?Volunteer your time at a local school and see how you can serve theirstudents.Do you have ideas to promote the game? Email me or any of the otherboard members and we’ll brainstorm it together.Now is the time to decide how YOU can help grow chess here inNebraska. I’m waiting to hear from you, and I’ll be looking for youand asking you to contribute. Best regards, John Hartmann

News and NotesIn PassingJamie E. LeavittNovember 22nd 1951November 2nd 2018Jamie Leavitt was severely burned in an accident (propane tank explosionEd) Tuesday, October 30, and died three days later on Friday, November2. Jamie had not played tournament chess in recent years, but he and I stillplayed once in a while. He leaned toward 1. e4 as White (hoping for a RuyLopez), and would play the Sicilian Defense as Black when he could. Healso would play Nimzo-Indian as Black with some frequency. He got a bit ofa thrill when he won a Bronze medal at his first Cornhusker State Games in2005. Drew named the June, 2008, JAILERR tournament for Jamie (theJaimie Leavitt Round Robin).Information and narrative provided by Jeff Solheim.Best wishes to Ben Fabrikant who now resides in Ecuador. Ben told mehe purchased a one way ticket to that country and it’s anyone’s guess whenand if he will return to Nebraska. For those of us who track Ben onFacebook, it appears he is “living the dream” and doing well. Good luckBen!Solution to cover diagram is 1. Bf5.Congratulations to John Hartmann on his new USCF job! John was hiredby US Chess as their Digital Editor. He writes for their website, editmaterials written by others, etc. This includes interviews with GMs(Benjamin and Avrukh thus far), does tournament reporting, writehistorical and educational pieces, and so forth. 1

Universal OpeningbyAlex Golubow"THERE are some truths which are so obvious that for thisvery reason they are not seen or at least not recognized byordinary people. They sometimes pass by such truisms asthough blind and are most astonished when someone suddenlydiscovers what everyone really ought to know. Columbus’seggs lie around by the hundreds of thousands, butColumbuses are met with less frequently."Ever since my friend taught me to play chess when I was 15years of age or so, I wondered what are the right moves toplay in the opening stage of the game. To me all possible firstmoves looked the same and why the chess players wereutilizing only a few of them was a mystery for me. I hoped tofind an explanation to this question in the chess books, but itwas hard at that time to come across a chess book anywhere. So, when a decade and a half later I borrowed a chessopening encyclopedia from one of my friends, I was greatlydisappointed by not being able to find a satisfactoryexplanation for the choice of one or another first move. Infact, there was no reasoning at all why one of the first moveswas better than the other. So, I returned the book to myfriend, because I did not want to memorize the opening moveswithout understanding the reasoning behind them.Throughout my life I played chess only occasionally, whenthe opportunity to play would present itself to me. Andonly when I took an early retirement from my state job at anage of 56 I started to devote more time to chess, having notmuch else to do.Since the Full Chess, about which I wrote my previous article,is a thing of distant future and meanwhile we still have to playconventional chess, I concentrated my efforts on designing a 2

Universal Opening which one can use no matter what color ofpieces he is to play.The modern chess strategy in the opening stage of the game isbased on two fundamental principles: fight for the occupationof central squares and develop pieces rapidly. While both ofthese principles make sense theoretically, it is hard to followthem in practice. In my opinion this strategy is successful only because both opponents in a game choose to followit, thus creating weaknesses in their pawn structures andmisplacing pieces.There is a golden rule in chess: try to place a piece on theboard so that it will not require a subsequent repositioning ofit. But in the opening stage of the game, when the position onthe board is yet undefined, it is difficult to follow this rule.Another rule is concerned with the development of a solidpawn structure. But, when you advance the pawn two squaresahead on the very first move and your opponentusually does the same, then both of them create weaknesses intheir own pawn structures. Since such advanced pawns notonly occupy the center, gain space and so on, they also createweaknesses because such pawns can easily be attacked andtherefore require some kind of protection themselves. Moreover, the adjacent squares of such advanced pawns (forexample, a pawn on e4 square has weak squares d4 and f4)become permanently weak so that an opponent can place hispieces on those squares.Thus, both opponents get the objects for their attack after thevery first moves and the ensuing game is all about the attacking the opponents weaknesses and defending weaknesses intheir own position That's how they have played chess forcenturies and even millennia on end.When I returned to active chess about a dozen years ago Idecided not to brush up on the conventional openings I wasplaying before because I realized that I was way behind in 3

them. I start my games with a move that nobody plays so that weboth would be on equal footing in the ensuing game (or so Ithought).My choice was an inconspicuous 1.a4!?. It is still my favorite firstmove ever since. I won some games with this first move fromopponents having a rating over 500 points higher than mine, butalso lost games to opponents with a rating almost 500 pointslower than mine. It was not clear to me what to play next after1.a4.Then I discovered that some people play an obscure openingcalled the "Crab Opening", where they play 1.a4 and 2.h4, orvice versa. I played that opening too, but without much success,mostly because I still didn't know what to play next after makingthose moves.To make the story short, about a couple of years ago, almost byaccident, I started analyzing 3.b3, 4.g3 regardless of the moves bythe opposing side. Usually, I was able to make the moves 5.d3,6.e3 as well before it was necessary to move any of my pieces.By the way, the same strategy is utilized when playing Blackas well, no matter what White would play in the opening. Hencecomes the name of this opening - Universal Opening! You mayplay these initial moves in random order as well, in subsequentgames, in order to mask your intentions and to further confuseyour opponents.Here is a diagram after the first six moves of Black: 1.e4 h5 2.d4a5 3.Nf3 g6 4.Nc3 b6 5.Bd3 d6 6.0-0 e6:XABCDEFGHY8rsnlwqkvlntr(7 -zp- p -'6-zp-zpp p &5zp- - - p%4- -zPP - 3 -sNL N -#2PzPP -zPPzP"1tR-vLQ RmK-!xabcdefghy 4